Stiffness of wheels.

[FrancoisO]

Thanks Johan, Great reply.

[Christie]

@ Kriek:

IMO the R-Sys is a stupid concept. Biggest problem I have with it is crash safety: those carbon spokes will shatter instead of bending, and turn into very dangerous sharp spears. I think it is only a matter of time before somebody gets hurt very badly by broken R-sys spokes in a bunch pileup somewhare. I have seen some photo sequences of Rsys wheels shattering - nasty stuff.

If you dont race, I suppose you dont have to worry about crashing, but why buy such expensive wheels then? If counting grams are so important, rather get Reynolds DV46C's - weight the same, cost the same, but the Reynolds wheels offer better aerodynamics, which brings me to my second point:

The Rsys SUCK aerodynamicaly, compared to other wheels. Have a look at the link Spinnekop posted (http://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-15505311.html) Fat spokes combined with the low profile rim makes more drag than just about any wheel on the market. The Rsys front wheel takes 35w to turn at 50km/h, compared to 27,8w for a Campy Eurus (or 16.7w for a Zipp 808) The +/-20w extra compared to the 808 is absolutely staggering.

 

@ FrancoisO:

The same website have got the wheel stiffness values as well:

Front wheels: the 404 front is slightly stiffer than the Easton Tempest, by about 2 or 3 N/mm from the graph - guess diff wil not be noticable on the road.

Rear wheels: Situation reversed, Easton about 1 N/mm stiffer than the 404.

Christie2008-10-21 13:45:20

[GoLefty!!]

BECAUSE  of their shocking aerodynamics, R-sys wheels make great training wheels. They push you to ride faster...